Hey feb. I just have read about "mutual gifts" often shared by male insects upon mating. Katydids for an instance. Really that the way to the woman's heart is really in her stomach. But isn't it deleterious to the male? It's just so nice and humans at least had not yet evolved into that way of mating, for survival and succession.

---Just one act of random kindness at a time and you can change the world---

lol, with insects it is all about producing a lot of offspring. You've heard about black widow and praying mantis also, right? Well... those females are only going to live long enough to lay a couple of egg sacs. By giving the females more nutrition than males, it is more likely to have more eggs/bigger egg sacs/healthier egg sacs. Both parents will die that season, anyway (I think widows can living longer, though maybe 3 to 5 years, still relatively short time.)

A lot of things are determined by females being bigger and/or living longer than males. I remember in an intro class learning about a Nematode of grasshoppers that laid eggs on grass blades. If the grasshopper ate less than 10 eggs all would become females, more than 10 eggs they would all become males because females need more to eat!

Haplo-Diploidy is a very interesting evolutionary trait! Also Eusocial insects are very interesting. Why did colonies evolve that only one or two individuals out of a LOT will mate, the others will never mate but they still work for the good of the colony. Isn't evolution geared towards passing on YOUR genes? Hmm...

INTERESTING about Katydids tho... In a season with drought the male's will not sing as much, because they don't want to mate and give away the gift. Interesting, right? I read that in the book "Broadsides from the Other Orders: A Book of Bugs" by Sue Hubbell.

Us humans tho, we have a lot of parental care and it would not be good to go through birth and raising a child by yourself *although some women and men can do that wellI would want my babies daddy to stick around for awhile longer

Man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. - Henry Benson

Well, if females have no interest at all, would it be right to say that males carry the surviving factor of their species?But indeed, such behavior is really intelligent because, all they have to work for is to continue their existence in this world.

---Just one act of random kindness at a time and you can change the world---

“Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.”Carl Sagan“I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world.” Richard Dawkins